-Prologue-

My black backpack's stuffed with broken dreams

Twenty bucks should get me through the week

Never said a word of discontentment

Thought it a thousand times but now I'm leaving home

I'm always alone... sitting on the cold hard floor of my room, legs held tightly against my chest, while I let myself drift away... somewhere I am seen... somewhere I belong... but not here... no... please don't leave me here... it's so quiet, so empty... won't you stay? Or will you go away? Pass me like all the rest, not even sparing me a glance out of the corner of your merciless eyes... to throw me away like a child's play thing... throw me away like a worthless rag doll... a broken toy... but... but I'm not broken... I'm not... I just don't move... will you ever play with me again? I'm here... waiting for you... waiting for someone to care for me again...

So many times I have acted for them... so many times I have kept them entertained with my childish nature... I've been there for them... cared for them, as how they once cared for me... not once have I thrown them aside because of another coming into my life... but they... they threw me aside... I was replaceable... it was okay to get ride of me... I was nothing more than a fool... a joke... to play as myself, to make them laugh and when they got tired of me, they give me away... to no one. It hurt a lot, to know, that you are unwanted by someone, but many... it kills you from the inside out... Slowly eating you away... taking things from you... in your mind... and you question yourself too... wondering what you saw in them. I always questioned my relationship with each of them... but I was so naïve as in to thinking they could be trusted with my friendship... but you don't know... how badly I wanted to feel like someone actually cared... and when I met him... I felt that same feeling I speak so fondly of...

He was the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle... the one thing that I held dear to my heart. Though it had taken me quite a few years to complete the golden treasure, I had hope that fueled my desire to complete it... and so I did. And he was a wondrous creature... a child of darkness... the very being of a god... his crimson eyes shined like seas of endless rubies, though shimmering with inhuman beauty; it held a war of waves that roared dangerously in its depths. Hair colored deeper than my own; blacker than the night skies, redder than fresh blood, and bangs the color of golden lightning that flashed with power. He was a masterpiece from heaven and hell themselves... and he was my other half... I am the light... while he is the dark...

Here in the shadows

I'm safe, I'm free

I've nowhere else to go but

I cannot stay where I don't belong

I had feelings for him, at first... brotherly... but I slowly grew from such small affections and developed... an attraction to him... yes, I know, disgustful... but if you were just to look in his eyes... then you would see why I did... but I'd soon regret... I regretted ever completing the puzzle... how I wish to shatter it... as how he did with me... toying with my misguided trust that he took for granted. I helped him... freed him from his prison... and helped him regain his memories that he had forgotten more than 5,000 years ago.

My friends knew nothing of him until the ending of Duelist Kingdom...

Then it got worst...

So many bad things happened... everyone you saw... they were after the puzzle... and the power of the Ancient Pharaoh... they wanted it for dark uses... and one wanted it for world domination... Marik.

It was during Battle City... a tournament that Seto Kaiba held to battle me in a duel to reclaim his title as Champion... but it also called out Marik... the spirit of the Millennium Rod... to claim only two things... the God Cards, and the puzzle. I fought... or, my other had fought his Rare Hunters one by one, winning and drawing ever so closer to defeating Marik. And after, we managed to confront him... along with my... um, Yami's friends... some of them battled against him and not surprisingly lost... but when I did, or both me and Yami, it was different. Though the duel was tough, we had both won in the end... silly me, I shouldn't take all the credit...

I'm so selfish, Yami did all the work...

And I ... did nothing...

Two months pass by and it's getting cold

I know I'm not lost, I'm just alone

But I won't cry, I won't give up, I can't go back now

Waking up is knowing who you really are

So with the spirit within the Millennium Rod defeated... I guess things were finally back to normal... but I was wrong... very wrong... Shadi then showed up afterwards... that's when everything when down hill... he said by using the power of the shadow realm, he was granted a chance at another life... gods, how stupid I was to encourage the idea. Yami was more than anxious to oblige, as he gathered the magic from within the puzzle and did exactly what Shadi had told him to do. And then... I saw him... in a solid human form... he was alive, after 5,000 years. He had re-proclaimed his ever devoting protection to me and how he would let no harm come to me... yeah right, I've heard that before. And after a few months of him being all physical and stuff, he started to go out without me with my friends... they invited him everywhere... and left me out... I kind of took the hint when they began this act... I was forgotten... ignored by them all... and sadly, my own grandfather whom I thought cared for me began to drift away as well, giving me less while he gave Yami more. I didn't really mind though... I really didn't care... I knew that something would happen... but I never spoke up about it... and this is my punishment...

This is what I must suffer...

Here in the shadows

I'm safe, I'm free

I've nowhere else to go but

I cannot stay where I don't belong

And now?

I just...

I stare at myself in a shattered mirror. Sitting alone, lost in a small corner, my eyes cast to the floor... nothing else matters, the innocent young child in me has been killed, my soul has faded, ripped away from me... my heart has disappeared. I am now a slave of my own misery. Shadows have crossed my face too many times... shrouding me with its hateful gaze... fear has left its marks in my eyes... leaving so many scars... the agonizing pain remains in my heart; you can see it in my dying eyes. The pain surrounds me, comforts me in its cold arms as it sings me the beautiful song of loneness.

This is the only comfort I get... I'm just another image in water... a single petal can shatter my appearance and make me look fake... I want to go away... go somewhere I am not known by anyone... to be free from my torment... maybe... just maybe then I will find somewhere I belong... and yet... I ask myself one question...

In the shadows

I'm safe, I'm free

I've nowhere else to go but

I cannot stay here

Does anyone care?

Yami seems to care about his popularity level with my friends instead of me... but I could care less about that matter.

But you know what? I'm not that worried about anything... what has happened throughout the year. I will just allow myself to slow fade away... like colors in a rainbow. As the light of the sun dies, taking back its casting rays away from the drizzling rain, the once beautiful colors that lit the skies slowly disappear... something I wish to do. And I feel as if...

As if... something is about to happen...

I feel hunted...

I feel trapped...

I am frightened what will happen next...

Show me the shadow where true meaning lies

So much more dismay in empty eyes

-Panther-